Furniture Base

ABSTRACT

A furniture base for supporting an item of furniture. The furniture base is assembled from a thin plate, the ends of which interlock to form a tubular wall. The tubular wall fits over a base plate. The base plate has a shoulder that imparts a desired shape to the tubular wall. An intermediate plate is mounted inside the tubular wall to maintain consistency of shape of the tubular wall, from its lower edge to its upper edge. Reinforcing rods are assembled in the furniture base to provide additional strength. The rods fit into recesses provided in the underside of the item of furniture to be supported and are secured in place against the intermediate plate and the base plate by means of threaded fasteners.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a furniture base. More particularly, the invention relates to a furniture base suitable for flat-packing with a flat-packed item of furniture.

2. Description of the Prior Art

A considerable share of the furniture sold comes in so-called flat packets. In other words, furniture is frequently sold and packed as an assembly kit, with the separate components requiring assembly once delivered to the destination of use. This is done understandably to reduce the volume to facilitate shipping and handling. Flat packets of this type are handled manually at least at the point of sale and delivery to the consumer, and as such it is important to limit the weight of each packet to that which a person can be expected to handle.

Furniture bases are used to support pieces of furniture, which are often heavy and, accordingly, the furniture bases must be able to absorb a certain amount of force. For this reason, the bases are often quite bulky and thus heavy assemblies, typically made from wood materials. Thus these known furniture bases are relatively unsuitable for flat packing, which may limit the sales of flat packed base mounted furniture.

What is needed, therefore, is a furniture base that is capable of absorbing the force from a piece of furniture, yet is sufficiently light in weight to be suitable for flat packing and manual handling of the flat-packed piece of furniture including furniture base.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object is achieved by providing a furniture base that is suitable for flat packing, that is sturdy enough to support the item of furniture.

The furniture base according to the invention comprises a base plate, a tubular wall formed from a thin plate that fits up against the piece of furniture, and an intermediate plate. The thin plate has two ends that are folded and that interlock with one another to form the thin plate into a closed tubular wall structure. The base plate has a shoulder on its upper surface. Fitting the lower edge of the closed tubular wall over this shoulder forces the thin plate to conform to the perimeter defined by the shoulder. The shape defined by the shoulder corresponds to a shape that is a complementary match to the shape of the support area of the item of furniture. Thus, depending on the shape of the shoulder, the tubular wall may take on a shape that is diametrically distended.

An intermediate plate is mounted inside the thin plate at some distance above the base plate. The external shape of the intermediate plate corresponds to the shape that is defined by the shoulder on the base plate. When in the mounted position, the intermediate plate also contributes to the diametrical distension of the thin plate and serves to maintain an essentially constant cross sectional shape across the distance of the tubular wall that extends upward between the base plate and the item of furniture.

The thin plate is pretensioned between the base plate and the item of furniture, by means of tension rods. The tension rods serve to keep the intermediate plate in its predetermined position.

Prior to assembly of the furniture base, that is, prior to rolling the thin plate into the tubular wall, all the components of the furniture base are suited for flat packing. Compared with furniture bases disclosed in the prior art, the furniture base according to the invention is relatively light while at the same time sufficiently robust and sturdy to support the considerable forces exerted on it when it is mounted under a piece of furniture.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.

FIG. 1 shows a furniture base according to the invention which forms the supporting member for an item of furniture;

FIG. 2 shows a sectional view I-I through FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view along the plane II-II shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of section IIA of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 in an enlarged cross-sectional view of section IIB of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described more fully in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which the preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention should not, however, be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, they are provided so that this disclosure will be complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

In the drawings, reference number 1 denotes a furniture base comprising a tubular wall 2, also referred to interchangeably as a thin plate 2, and a base plate 4. In FIG. 1, parts of the thin plate 2 have been removed in order to provide a better illustration of the internal structure. The thin plate 2 is essentially a flat plate having a first end 6A and a second end 6B. A fold 8 is provided in both ends 6A/6B of the plate. Interlocking the folds 8 as shown in FIG. 3 closes the thin plate to the tubular shape shown in FIG. 1, which serves as a wall of the furniture base 1.

The tubular wall 2 has a lower edge 10 and an upper edge 14. The base plate 4 has a particular shape that matches the shape of the furniture it is intended to support. The tubular shape of the thin plate 2 is forced to conform to the shape of the base plate 4 by fitting the lower edge 10 of the thin plate 2 over a shoulder 12 provided on the base plate 4, as shown in FIG. 5. By so doing, the tubular shape of the thin plate 2 assumes the areal shape of the base plate 4. The upper edge 14 of the thin plate also has a contour that matches or conforms to that of an item of furniture 16, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4. FIGS. 1 and 2 show the furniture base 1 mounted to the underside of the item of furniture 16.

FIG. 2 shows an intermediate plate 18 that is positioned relatively high up within the tubular wall or thin plate 2. The intermediate plate 18 has an outer shape that is identical to that of the base plate 4, and serves to maintain the shape of the thin plate 2 after it has been formed to the tubular wall 2.

FIGS. 4 and 5 shows a tension rod 20 that is fitted into the furniture base 1 to provide the necessary strength to support the furniture 16. A suitable number of tension rods 20 is provided for each furniture base 1, depending on the size and shape of the furniture 1 to be supported. Each tension rod 20 extends from a fastening point 22 provided in the furniture 16 through first bores 24 in the intermediate plate 18 and through second bores 26 in the base plate 4. Each tension rod 20 is held in place up against an underside of the intermediate plate 18 by a first washer 28 and a first nut 30 and held in place against an underside of the base plate 4 by a second washer 32 and a second nut 34. In the embodiment shown, a recess 36 is provided in the base plate 4 to accommodate the second washer 32 and second nut 34. The second nut 34 effectively clamps the base plate 4 and the thin plate 2 against the item of furniture 16.

It is understood that the embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the present invention. Variations in the construction of the furniture base may be contemplated by one skilled in the art without limiting the intended scope of the invention herein disclosed and as defined by the following claims. 

1. A furniture base for supporting an item of furniture, said furniture base comprising: a thin plate having a first end and a second end; a base plate having a shoulder and a shape defined by said shoulder; and fasteners for fastening said base plate to said item of furniture; wherein said first end and said second end of said thin plate are interlockable with each other so as to form a tubular wall; wherein, when said tubular wall is fitted over said shoulder on said base plate, said tubular wall conforms to said shape defined by said shoulder; and wherein said fasteners pretension said base plate toward said item of furniture. 2-5. (canceled)
 6. The furniture base of claim 1, wherein said shoulder extends along an outer edge portion of said base plate and defines a perimeter of said shape.
 7. The furniture base of claim 1, wherein said shape of said tubular wall complements a shape on said item of furniture.
 8. The furniture base of claim of claim 1, wherein said shape of said tubular wall, when fitted over said shoulder, is distended diametrically.
 9. The furniture base of claim 1 further comprising an intermediate plate, said intermediate plate have an external plate shape that corresponds to said shape defined by said shoulder on said base plate, wherein said tubular wall has a lower edge and an upper edge and wherein said intermediate plate is assemblable within said tubular wall at a distance intermediate said lower edge and said upper edge.
 10. The furniture base of claim 9, wherein said intermediate plate has a first throughbore and said base plate a second throughbore, and wherein said fastener is a support rod that is insertable through said first and said second throughbores and fastenable against said base plate, so as to fasten said base plate and said tubular wall against said item of furniture.
 11. The furniture base of claim 10, wherein said base plate has an underside and a recess on said underside, wherein said second throughbore opens into said recess, wherein said support rod has a lower end with a threaded portion that extends into said recess, and wherein said support rod is secured against said underside of said base plate with a washer and a nut.
 12. The furniture base of claim 11, wherein said support rod has an upper end with a threaded portion that extends up through said throughbore in said intermediate plate into a recess in said item of furniture, and wherein said upper end is securable against an underside of said intermediate plate with a washer and nut. 